Parents should stop blaming themselves because there’s not a lot they can do about it. I mean the teenager problem, the one I want to talk about as a specialist. Whatever you do or however you choose to deal with it, at certain times a wonderful, reasonable and helpful child will turn into a terrible animal.

I’ve seen friends deal with it in all kinds of different ways. One strict mother insisted that her son, right from a child, should stand up whenever anyone entered the room, open doors and shake hands like a gentleman. I saw him last week when I dropped in on them. Sprawling himself (懒散地躺) on the sofa in full length, he made no attempt to turn off the loud TV he was watching as I walked in, and his greeting was no more than a quick glance at me. His mother was ashamed. “I don't know what to do with him these days,” she said. “He’s forgotten all the manners we taught him.”

He hasn’t forgotten them. He’s just decided that he’s not going to use them. She admitted that she would like to come up behind him and throw him down from the sofa onto the floor.

Another good friend of mine let her two daughters climb all over the furniture, reach across the table, stare at me and say, “I don’t like your dress; it’s ugly.” One of the daughters has recently been driven out of school. The other has left home.

“Where did we go wrong?” her parents are now very sad. Probably nowhere much. At least, no more than the rest of that unfortunate race, parents.

Many teenagers(青少年)feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends. They believe that their family members don’t know them as well as their friends do. In large families, it is quite often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for some ideas.

It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or a group of friends. Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among them on the phone. This communication is very important in children’s growing up, because friends can discuss something. These things are difficult to tell their family members.

However, parents often try to choose their children’s friends for them. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. Have you ever thought of the following questions?

Who chooses your friends?

Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?

Have you got a good friend your parents don’t like?

Your answers are welcome.

One of my earliest memories started with me sobbing. Mum took out an old sheet of wrapping paper and began to fold it. Soon, a paper tiger stood on the table. “Tiger!” said mom. I was fascinated by Tiger and stopped crying.

Mum started to make paper toys and would leave them on the breakfast table for me.

One day, when I was playing with Tiger, my neighbor, a boy around my age asked, “What’s this?” “It’s a paper tiger. My mum made it!” I replied proudly. “Your mum makes you toys from rubbish?” he cried in disbelief. I had never thought of Tiger as that. Looking at it now, I found Tiger’s body patched (修补) all over with tape. I hid Tiger in my pocket sheepishly.

The next day at school, the other children whispered as they stared at me. “Do you really play with rubbish? Don’t you have any normal toys?” Someone shouted. The children roared with laughter. I tried to slip away but fell to the ground.

When I got home, I put Tiger and all the paper animals into a big box and hid it in the attic (阁楼). When I saw Mum’s new creation, a paper giraffe, I knocked it into the bin. I shouted at her, “I’m not a baby anymore! ”From that day on, Mum’s creations stopped appearing on the breakfast table.

Years later, while preparing for our class graduation photoshoot, someone suggested posing with a treasured childhood item. I then searched the attic for one and saw the box of old paper toys. I opened it with care. As I held Tiger, I recalled our adventures and how I had put it aside so carelessly. A pang of guilt crowded in on me.

When I received my graduation photo, I placed it on Mum's dressing table with a note, “I'm sorry I threw the paper giraffe away and thanks for everything!” Later that day, I saw the photo in our family’s display cabinet. Next to the photo was a new paper toy—a paper giraffe.